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DIY down quilt advice needed

Everything is coming together this weekend for me to finish my down quilt. The kids are at grammy's, the wife is busy with class work, and the down from Ed just arrived.

I have cut all the fabric and baffles and have put omni tape in for a head hole and sewed the two halves together. It is time for baffles.

I have experimented a little bit with scraps to figure out how to best attach the baffles in a close approximation to a straight line. Since I'm lazy I was looking for a way to do this without pinning. I found that my rolled hem foot works extremely well on the noseeum netting. It makes an even 4mm rolled hem, and I can just mark a line on the ripstop at a 1/4" offset and keep this line aligned with the right edge of the rolled hem foot. This way, I roll hem the noseeum and sew it to the ripstop in one operation. This method is so simple and effortless that I am beginning to wonder if there might be something I am overlooking.

Has anybody done this? Anybody care to speculate whether this is a good idea or not?

I made marks on the inside with a grease pencil for the lines with the baffles. I did end up pinning. One issue that I had was that the nanoseeum I used from thru hiker would stretch as I sewed. It turned out easier to pin.

Do a roll seam with the baffles. It makes the baffle stronger and makes it last longer.

Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".

I made marks on the inside with a grease pencil for the lines with the baffles. I did end up pinning. One issue that I had was that the nanoseeum I used from thru hiker would stretch as I sewed. It turned out easier to pin.

Do a roll seam with the baffles. It makes the baffle stronger and makes it last longer.

I am using noseeum from owfinc, and it does stretch a bit. My baffles are 52" long. I did a test piece and the noseeum stretched by about 3/8" over the length of the seam. I am not sure how consistent the stretch will be, so I plan on marking the end of the seam and stop sewing at the mark. Then, cut off the excess.

It should stretch pretty consistantly. If your baffle length is 52", I would make the length of the noseeum 53". That way the ends of the noseeum will be sealed in the seams. That will keep the small amount of down that will move from moving.

If your length is only 52", just start a little before and use the stretch to your advantage.

Another thing is to try and keep the stretch under control. I could tell in the end quilt when there was too much stretch. The quilt doesn't lay completly flat. It doesn't effect the use, just the looks.

Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".

not to hijack the thread, but I've wondered about a related question, to wit,

why noseeum? Particularly if there are issues now with it stretching as you sew.

or perhaps, "Do noseeum baffles make that much difference in compressing a quilt?"

most noseeum is just as heavy as 1.1 oz uncoated nylon, or more. Unless you go for the 0.7 oz noseeum from thru-hiker, it doesn't have to be a weight decision.

Air will move around between baffles if you use noseeum, I can see that could affect compressing the quilt, but the air gets out of the quilt the same places either way.

jest wondering

Grizz

It would probibly work the same. As you said the air to loft the quilt comes in through the DWR shell in the first place. The only thing I can think of is it might take a little longer to fully loft. I always try to setup and shake my quilts/bags first thing in camp anyways.

Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".

It should stretch pretty consistantly. If your baffle length is 52", I would make the length of the noseeum 53". That way the ends of the noseeum will be sealed in the seams. That will keep the small amount of down that will move from moving.

If your length is only 52", just start a little before and use the stretch to your advantage.

Another thing is to try and keep the stretch under control. I could tell in the end quilt when there was too much stretch. The quilt doesn't lay completly flat. It doesn't effect the use, just the looks.

The width of my fabric is 56", the baffles are 52". I figured that when I hem the edges with a 1" hem, the noseeum baffles will be sewn in place and prevent the down from moving.